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Saturday, January 12, 2008

A little chocolate can go a long way!

We have certainly made our fair share of coma-inducing, outrageous and obscene brownies before (click on those if you don't know what I'm talking about!), but what if you wanted one that was not crazy full of calories, yet could still satisfy a chocolate craving? While these Dark Fudgy Brownies may not be as jam-packed with butter and chocolate like those others, they were able to put our craving to rest today!

These brownies are dense, chewy and decidedly fudgy (don't confuse that with gooey though!), as there are no leaveners called for - without them, you have your choice of what cocoa powder you wish to use. We chose Dutch-process cocoa powder which gave our brownies an extra dark finish and a smooth rich chocolate flavor. However, if you prefer the slightly bitter edge that natural cocoa powder has, you can swap them without needing to change anything. The original recipe calls for light corn syrup - I try not to use that unless it is absolutely necessary, so I used Lyle's Golden Syrup which gave the brownies a mild burnt sugar depth. You could also use brown rice syrup if you shy away from corn syrup.

For an extra punch of chocolate, we chopped up some extra bittersweet chocolate into small shards to throw in at the end. Jeff doesn't care for nuts in brownies, but feel free to toss in 1/3 to 1/2 cup of toasted walnuts, or nut of your choice, when you fold in those small chocolate bits. When you test for doneness, you don't want the toothpick to come out clean - a few moist crumbs clinging to the toothpick is ideal. If you pull up wet batter, give them a couple more minutes and test again. While they may not be entirely guilt free, they are certainly lighter than most... and besides, a little chocolate is good for you, right?